"All of this material is a discography of only the first three years of this band's existence. Amazing how bands can release so much material in such short time, isn't it? Especially with such a notable progression in that time. The earlier stuff (which is at the end of the CD instead of the beginning, now that doesn't make much sense, does it?) sounds more like novelty.

Most of the songs are really short and have some out of place kind of riff like the beginning of the Star Spangled Banner or part of Jingle Bells. An amusing joke, but for the most part just a joke. Avi's voice was much different too, instead of the high screech he emits these days, this was more of just a regular hardcore style scream. The band kept going at it and got progressively faster, tighter, and even heavier with each recording. What does that lead to with the more modern stuff? It's much more serious and intense. Most of the songs seem to be about killing in some way (and some of the titles are probably longer than the songs themselves) but trying to line up the vocals with the lyrics is practically impossible."

"1. The Blessed Dead: This album starts out heavy, and ends heavy. It starts with a black-metalish intro, and quickly turns to blastbeats and quick guitar riffs. The vocals on this song are some of my favorite. They blend extremely well with the music. You can definately sense some Egyptian roots in this music. 5/5

2. Execration Text: This song starts out extremely fast, just like typical Nile, and doesn't stop. The first riff is very fast, and well written. The first solo is slower at first, nothing complicated, but then it changes into another Egyptian based riff/solo. These type of songs (almost every song on this album is this way) are very hard to review, because the riffs change so often. Either way, I give this song 4/5

3. Sarcophagus: Starts out a bit slower, again, sensing the egyptian style. Even the drums have a bit of an influence. I love the first riff in this song. It is slower (for Nile that is) and the growls are haunting. I love how the vocalist can actually pronounce his words. (even though they aren't completely clear) Good song. 4/5

4. Kheftiu Asar Butchiu: This song starts off extremely fast with blastbeats, and badass fills by the drummer. I love the chorus in this song when the vocalist(s) are growling something...I can't tell what it is, not even with the lyric book :( but it sounds like "from". They say it quite a few times. Ah, I love the solo in this song. Technical, and blends well. Great song. 5/5"

"RZA, however, could have been a legend if he'd never stepped behind the boards. His words follow their own rhythm into a complex, hypnotic flow. He doesn't create a counterpoint to the drum line, like most great MCs do, He vocalizes like a shaman, magnetizing you with his chants. In the anthemic "B.O.B.B.Y.," he drops, "You know what? Simply robust/The greatest crew since Cold Crush/This poisonous slang keep MCs avoiding us/Can't figure out the probabilities for destroyin' us/Your best bet, Black, is sit back and start enjoyin' us."

As a producer he seems a man burdened by genius, wrestling with his talent, challenging fans to follow him into his sound, a perfect fit for a Blade Runner, robots-are-taking-over-the-world future. Bobby Digital has the unrelentingness of good punk – more accessible than Wu-Tang Forever but full of grinding, dark, bass-drunk, anti-dance tracks. Singling out songs would defeat the purpose: It's one of those soundscape albums that just blend from one track to the next, like one long song with no sort of brightness or hooks for non-alicionados to latch onto. This is hip-hop for hip-hoppas." - Rolling Stone

"Breach are not what you could call normal. Unconventional in all respects they avoid any form of classification at all costs. They’re a band that leads you to an eerily beautiful solace, alleviating you of all conscious annoyances, offering you Martini & fine wines while secretly deceiving you and plotting a more sinister assault on the senses.

‘Big Strong Boss’ is a track that teases you, leading you to that sparkly, yet eerie, place where nothing quite seems right but scantily clad babes still appear to see to your every need. Think the video to Smashing Pumpkins’ 'Zero'. That is until the mirage suddenly and very frighteningly dissipates with the arrival of ‘Old Ass Player', turning the skies black and an altogether more fearsome force bellows from the seas with such awesome ferocity to blow you to the next galaxy. And the agonizing pleading from their vocalist in the lines “let me rest for a while! SEE! ME! THROUGH!” only serves to add to your nightmare experience. Think Lord of The Rings. Think Indiana Jones’s worst nightmare. Think a really bad trip.

"Naturally, the Beasties were in a pretty weird position when it came to Check Your Head. They'd had a debut that was commercially an absolute blockbuster, breaking all manner of records and, really, marking the moment when most people had to accept that rap was a legitimate musical form, rather than just another subcultural movement that would fade into obscurity within five years. And yet, about half the songs on it were offensively bad; "Fight For Your Right" and "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" may have been gold, but as an album it was mediocre at best. It still stands today as the worst album the Beasties have ever made. The follow-up, Paul's Boutique, was exactly the opposite - as groundbreaking artistically as Licensed To Ill had been commercially, it remains one of the most untouchable documents in hip-hop's history. Naturally, nobody bought it. The contrasting fates probably damned mainstream hip-hop to a future of general mediocrity, but that's an argument for another time.

The M.O. for Check Your Head was simple - combine the two albums, and somehow come up with something that was artistically valid, and would still sell. This album was their first step into the world they'd stay in, and effectively are still in - hip-hop that displays a sense of musical intelligence and invention and a finely-tuned sense of humour, but doesn't stray too far from the frat-boy friendly vocal trade-offs that made a million white kids buy their first album. "Intergalactic", "Check It Out", "Sabotage", "Sure Shot" - the blueprint is here. Naturally, they had to sacrifice the psychedelic sample-heavy collage of 1989's Paul's Boutique, for financial reasons as much as anything - De La Soul's 3 Feet High & Rising, also released in 1989 (and seen by some as Paul's Boutique's nearest musical twin), had seen the group sued for one of the many samples used. The ground that hip-hop stood on had changed forever - songs built from dozens of carefully pieced-together samples were out. So a fresh musical outlook was needed.

They kept it simple. There's effectively only two songs on Check Your Head - the first is a stomping, guitar-driven rap track that allowed the group to do what they do best (rap, basically), while the second is a lightly funky, vaguely dubby downtempo lounge track with little or no vocals. They'd return to the latter on 2007's The Mix-Up for a full album, but here's it's slightly jarring - it really does feel like you're listening to two albums. Those instrumental (or near-instrumental) tracks might add variety to the album, and they might actually display some good musical ideas here and there, but put them next to the hip-hop powerhouses elsewhere on this album, and well....they're pretty boring, to be honest. It's especially jarring when "Something's Got To Give" follows on from the album's feted excursion into hardcore on "Time For Livin'", making it sound like a new age track in comparison."

"It's tempting to judge Gorillaz — Damon Albarn, Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett, and Dan "The Automator" Nakamura's virtual band — just by their brilliantly animated videos and write the project off as another triumph of style over substance. Admittedly, Hewlett's edgy-cute characterizations of 2-D, Gorillaz' pretty boy singer (who looks a cross between the Charlatans' Tim Burgess and Sonic the Hedgehog), sinister bassist Murdoc, whiz-kid guitarist Noodle, and b-boy drummer Russel are so arresting that they almost detract from Gorillaz' music. The amazing "Thriller"-meets-Planet of the Apes clip for "Clint Eastwood" is so visually clever that it's easy to take the song's equally clever, hip-hop-tinged update of the Specials' "Ghost Town" for granted. And initially, Gorillaz' self-titled debut feels incomplete when Hewlett's imagery is removed; the concept of Gorillaz as a virtual band doesn't hold up as well when you can't see the virtual bandmembers. It's too bad that there isn't a DVD version of Gorillaz, with videos for every song, à la the DVD version of Super Furry Animals' Rings Around the World. Musically, however, Gorillaz is a cutely caricatured blend of Albarn's eclectic Brit-pop and Nakamura's equally wide-ranging hip-hop, and it sounds almost as good as the band looks. Albarn has fun sending up Blur's cheeky pop on songs like "5/4" and "Re-Hash," their trip-hop experiments on "New Genious" and "Sound Check," and "Song 2"-like thrash-pop on "Punk" and "M1 A1." Despite the similarities between Albarn's main gig and his contributions here, Gorillaz isn't an Albarn solo album in disguise; Nakamura's bass- and beat-oriented production gives the album an authentically dub and hip-hop-inspired feel, particularly on "Rock the House" and "Tomorrow Comes Today." Likewise, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Miho Hatori, and Ibrahim Ferrer's vocals ensure that it sounds like a diverse collaboration rather than an insular side project. Instead, it feels like a musical vacation for all parties involved — a little self-indulgent, but filled with enough fun ideas and good songs to make this virtual band's debut a genuinely enjoyable album."- allmusic

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